Sunday, February 9, 2014

Be Careful What You Wish For


While we were heading into the fourth straight year of drought - and the worst of them - many of us wished for rain. People were talking about the lack of rain, there were prayers for rain and even rain dances.

The wish for rain.

It finally came this past week. Slowly first - a nice steady but not heavy rain that made the ground wet. After another day of sunshine and rather cool temperatures the rain returned on Friday and came into full force on Saturday.

It was pouring. Big time.

And our dry land was reacting like a desert - with flash floods.


As you can see in this picture, despite the drought there were people who still watered their lawns... I guess some people just pretend there's no problem at all.

Our street was flooded in no time at all. The top picture was taken from our front door, the second one from our garage. Both were results to completely clogged drains. The flash flood came from a tiny creek that is supposed to go underground here, but since the drain was so much clogged the water found other ways to pour into the street. Since all the drains were clogged here as well, the chain reaction was foreseeable.


Can you see all the debris that was coming with the water?

After a couple hours, the city maintenance staff  fortunately came out and cleaned out the drains. Now the streets aren't under water anymore, but the amount of debris is appalling.

It is still raining, and that is good. Even though we've got so much rain, the danger of drought is far from over. We need much much more rain to get back to a "normal" year. There are two more rain storms later in the week on the horizon.

This is a very bad picture of Kaefer standing in the flooded street - but it gives you an idea what it looked like here for a few hours. The water, of course, got into her boots... Wonderful to see that teenagers still can be like little kids. I was ready to put on my rain boots as well and go puddle jumping with her like we used to do when she was little.


What does your weekend weather look like?


13 comments:

Poppy said...

Hi Carola,

So nice to meet you!

I am so glad that you got some (okay, QUITE some), rain finally! I believe that California and Crete have similar climates, if I'm not mistaken, so I can relate re: the droughts.

Is 'the Greek' your husband? If so, another thing we have in common!:-)

Looking forward to getting to know you and your lovely blog!

Following you back,

Poppy

Elephant's Child said...

Oooh. How I would love to jump in a puddle.
Our weekend weather is baking. Parts of Oz are alight, and other parts are under water.
Here the ground is brown and the vegetation crispified. And yes, I am longing for some of the wet stuff.

Sally H said...

I hope you get the rain you need , Carola. Last week it came so heavy here that it fetched up the road leaving some serious potholes. still we are lucky compared to further south.

Unknown said...

We have had non-stop rain for weeks and there are floods all over the country (and still more forecast). Ditto what Sally says, and hope you get the weather you need in your part of the world. Have a great week! :)

Laurie said...

Ah Carola, so happy you got some much needed rain. We had an awesome weekend. The temps were in the 50's and it was sunny.

JoZart Designs said...

Scary stuff! I'm so glad they came quickly to clear the flow. Here in England they didn't do the work need after last year's floods and now many areas are under 3 feet of water again and everyone is up in arms. Sewage has leached into the flood waters and people have been evacuated. We are lucky in our area and have never suffered extremes.
stay dry....
Jo x

Anonymous said...

Mir scheint als wenn das Wetter nur noch Extreme kennt. Das normale Wetter... wo gibt es das noch? Mein Sohn ist zur Zeit in Texas und dort sprühen sie den Rasen mit grüner Farbe an wegen der Trockenheit, also ich weis nicht wie ich das finden soll.
Liebe Grüße Patricia

Darla said...

I enjoyed the rain after so long without it. Our streets didn't clog up quite as badly as yours though.

Darla

Cheri said...

We have a few low-lying areas around here where this happens every spring. But right now our weather looks like snow, ice, snow and more snow. We haven't yet had enough warmth to melt anything we've gotten (over a foot by now) and we are expecting another storm front on Thursday.

patty said...

Well, it always seems like feast or famine! We did have rain, but so little it's kind of a joke. Truly, though, we are more reliant on the rain in Northern CA so I'm glad you got a bunch! Our relatives at Lake Tahoe have had hardly any snow and now had rain as well. So weird....

Magic Love Crow said...

Wow, that is a lot of water! I am sorry it came down, so fast, but I am happy you got it! Why do people have to water their lawns? Our neighbour is like that! I might give my trees and plants some water, but never the grass! We are getting more snow! Take care ;o)

Sunshineshelle said...

Oh dear, longer gumboots needed! Hope next time it is a little less intense to soak the gardens! Stay dry :)

gina said...

I think you got a lot more rain than we did here, just a bit south of you. Officially our town got three inches, but my big bucket filled to the top, so I think we got quite a bit more in our little microclimate. It was such a blessing, and while it is nice to dry out a bit, I hope that more is coming! My two year old grandson had a great time puddle jumping in the rain!